184 Mr A. B. Rendle, On Alewrone grains in Lupine. [Feb. 13, 
means so mechanical but consists in an active secretion by and in 
the protoplasm. Sections of seeds which are just beginning to 
swell are seen to contain a number of more or less spherical bodies 
protruding from the protoplasm and staining deeply with iodine, 
Hofmann’s blue and other dyes which stain protoplasm, and by 
treatment with dilute KOH, these are shewn to be due to the 
secretion of some substance, presumably proteid, soluble in dilute 
KOH and separated by a delicate protoplasmic membrane from 
the vacuole. The substance is insoluble in solutions of NaCl or 
dilute HCl. By increase in size the little masses of secretion 
soon fill up the whole interior of the cell, but always remain 
separately embedded in a protoplasmic reticulum. 
The substance originally secreted appears to break down shortly 
into the several proteids found in the ripe grain, a process which 
is indicated by alteration in solubility, as by the time the vacuole 
has been filled up the grains have become soluble in salt solutions 
and in fact behave with regard to solvents exactly as those of the 
ripe seed. It is probably during this chemical decomposition that 
the mineral matter appears, but in the species which was specially 
studied, L. digitatus, the grains even in the fully ripe seed, contain 
no solid mineral matter at all. 
It is interesting to note that the process of development indi- 
cated here very closely agrees with that lately described by 
Gardiner and Ito for mucilage drops in the secreting hairs of 
Blechnum and Osmunda. 
February 27, 1888. 
Mr J. W. CLark, PRESIDENT, IN THE CHAIR. 
The following were elected Fellows of the Society : 
H. L. Callendar, B.A., Fellow of Trinity College. 
T. C. Fitzpatrick, B.A., Fellow of Christ’s College. 
G. P. Bidder, B.A., Trinity College. 
The following communications were made: 
(1) On a Radiation Problem. By E. W. Hosson, M.A., Christ’s 
College. 
If a uniform rod of section so small, that the motion of heat 
in it may be regarded as linear, be bounded by the plane x=0 
and extend to an indefinite distance in the positive direction of 
a, the formula 
w [* FY) 
tg Ms “gem ews 1), 
2 Jaelo(t—r)i- 0) 
